BE wants to guarantee access to medical abortion in health centers

This Friday, the BE coordinator stressed that her party wants to guarantee the right to abortion, which in her opinion is not respected, by proposing measures such as access to medicated IVV in health centers.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with the Association of Planned Parenthood (APF) in Lisbon, Mariana Mortagua recalled that this Sunday marks 17 years since the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) was approved in a referendum.

“This right, although it was enshrined in a referendum, is not respected because access to IVH is in practice difficult for thousands of women, because not all hospitals provide this opportunity, because there are problems in the organization of hospitals that make access difficult” , he ruled.

Mariana Mortagua emphasized that BE wants to ensure that “access to IVG is possible, that it is protected and guaranteed by the National Health Service (SNS), because that is the only way to do it.”

“We want to do this while remembering the enormous benefits that this law has brought to Portugal: not only has the number of IVHs decreased, but there has been much greater access to healthcare, medical complications have also been reduced and, above all, the country has stopped sending women to prison for access to a right that should have been theirs from the beginning,” he said.

When asked what measures could be taken to facilitate this access, Mariana Mortagua replied that “there are legal issues that need to be resolved, and there are service organization issues that need to be resolved.”

“One of the issues that needs to be resolved is related to access to IVH itself. It is not guaranteed throughout the territory, in all hospitals, and it is not guaranteed in primary health care, in medical centers,” he said.

According to the BE coordinator, “there is no reason why medication-assisted IVH cannot be obtained at the health center.”

In terms of organizing services, Mariana Mortagua said the law stipulates that doctors who have conscientious objections to the practice of abortion must report it so “planning can be done.”

“In practice this does not happen, and because this does not happen, it prevents the organization of services, which then has the practical effect that women, when they come to the service – and we know that timing matters here and every day – make access no , because there are no free specialists,” he emphasized.

Asked whether she believed there were political forces that questioned access to abortion, the BE leader said she believed IVG in Portugal “is a matter of consensus.”

“There is no one in Portugal who cannot recognize the benefits of the IVG law. And therefore, this law must be protected and it must be ensured that it is applied in practice, and at the moment it is not,” he said. .

In turn, the executive director of the NPF, Sarah Rocha, told reporters that the meeting with BE “was productive”, since the association was able to convey to the party its concerns, in particular “about wide access to sexual and reproductive health services, namely improving conditions access to IVG”.

“We were able to convey to BE that it is very important that there are changes in the IVG law, but there are also many changes in the practice of services related to sexuality and sexuality education, because young men and women are not getting all the information. what they will need, and in IVG situations access is not enough,” he said.

Sarah Rocha also believes there is a “lack of investment in sexuality education”, calling on parties and parliament to “understand that it is important to provide accurate information to young people so they can make informed decisions about their sexuality.”